Holford Street

Holford Street in Westown was formed in the mid-1940s as part of a large government state housing project, known at the time as the “J.H. Quilliam Housing Block”. The L-shaped block, with frontages to Tukapa and Clawton Streets, was purchased from former New Plymouth solicitor James Henry Quilliam.

Wrantage Street, running off Tukapa, anchored the subdivision and three short streets, Tor, Chard and Holford, completed the development.   

All three names were taken from places in the English county of Somerset as a tribute to former mayor (between 1889 to 1893) James Bellringer, who was born in the village of Wrantage. 

A letter written by the Town Clerk to the Director of Housing Construction in Wellington on 15 February 1944 explained that “For the short streets it has been necessary to choose short names owing to the difficulty of printing long names in the town plan when prepared”.

Holford Street is the longest of these “short names” and comes from a small village within the Quantock Hills, classified as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. It appears to be a quaint looking place with a popular pub called The Plough Inn.

In 1963, plans were submitted to the New Plymouth City Council for the formation of two new streets in Westown, Pembroke Street and Elm Grove. As part of the development, Holford Street was extended to link up with Pembroke, making the short street a little bit longer.

Seventy-five years after the first homes in the state housing project were finished, Kāinga Ora announced that some “had come to the end of their life” and were to be demolished, replaced by new homes “better utilising the land”.

The Taranaki Daily News reported in September 2021 that “eighteen homes are set to replace 10 ageing bungalows”. Houses in Wrantage and Holford Streets had either already been demolished, or were about to be, to make way for eighteen abodes ranging from one to four bedrooms.

The development is now complete and offers a sharp contrast to the vision of the 1940s. The emphasis today is on maximising space and light as well as providing a warm healthy home on a smaller footprint than the traditional quarter-acre section.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related items:

Taranaki DP7037 Sheet 1 (1948), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP9313 Sheet 1 (1963), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Plans Approved for Cutting up of Land for State Housing (Taranaki Daily News 19 August 1943)

New Plymouth Streets Named by the Council (Taranaki Daily News 15 February 1944)

32 State Houses being Built at New Plymouth (Taranaki Daily News 29 May 1945)

Empty state homes demolished (Taranaki Daily News 15 November 2019)

Start date to replace old state homes (Taranaki Daily News 8 April 2021)

Bungalows make way for homes (Taranaki Daily News 21 September 2021)

A newer, brighter state house (Taranaki Daily News 28 September 2022)

Kāinga Ora is bringing old state houses into the 21St century (Taranaki Daily News 2 November 2023)